During the past several years, the U.S. Supreme Court has not hesitated to overrule interpretations of the Patent Act by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, often acting to restrict the procedural or substantive rights of patent holders. For example, in eBay v. MercExchange LLC, 547 U.S. 388 (2006), the Court held that the traditional four-factor test for injunctive relief, and not a more liberal rule, applies in patent cases. And in KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007), the Court found that the Federal Circuit had applied too lenient a standard in judging whether a patent is invalid for obviousness.

In two opinions issued in May and June, the Court again considered basic questions under the patent laws. In Global-Tech Appliances Inc. v. SEB S.A., 131 S. Ct. 2060 (2011), the Court toughened the Federal Circuit’s standard for proving that a defendant induced infringement of a patent, making it harder for a patent holder to establish liability. But in Microsoft Corp. v. i4i L.P., 2011 WL 2224428 (U.S. June 9, 2011), the Court declined the invitation to change the long-standing rule that patent invalidity must be established by clear and convincing evidence. These decisions come against the background of continued congressional consideration of “reform” of the Patent Act. Unlike several of the Court’s recent patent decisions, however, Global-Tech and Microsoft focused more on statutory interpretation and precedent than on the policy issues being discussed in Congress.

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